Service providers are expected to invest over $20 Billion in Software Defined Networking(SDN) and Network Fucntion Virtualization(NFV) solutions by 2020, according to SNS Research's latest report. The market research firm notes that mobile operators and internet service providers have already begun making SDN and NFV investments in a number of functional areas including Evolved Packet Core(EPC), IP Multimedia Subsystem(IMS), policy control, CPE, Content Delivery Network(CDN) and transport networks.
SNS Research estimates that service provider SDN and NFV investments will grow at a CAGR of 54% in the next five years. As service providers seek to reduce costs and virtualize their networks, these investments will eventually account for over $20 billion in revenue by the end of 2020.
SNS points out that SDN and NFV can reduce the CapEx and OpEx burden faced by service providers to handle the ever growing network capacity demand by diminishing reliance on expensive proprietary hardware platforms.